One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975)

Excellent but underrated film

A Major Disappointment

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

This movie is still brilliant. It has a cracking start. Lord Southmere, desperate to preserve a secret formula, flees from the Chinese gang - in the Natural History Museum - among dinosaur skeletons. He takes refuge in a pram (donning a baby's bonnet), but this is not enough to fool the dastardly villains. But before they drag him away he has time to tell his old nanny (Helen Hayes) where the formula is hidden - somewhere on the diplodocus. She, Joan Sims and a gang of other nannies pursue the Chinese and eventually kidnap the dinosaur (now on the back of a steam powered truck). There is a great comedy chase through London and the English countryside. Great British character actors pop up to perform cameos (Joan Hickson, Derek Guyler, Geoffrey Pearson, Jane Lapotaire, Hugh Laurie). I agree with other commenters that the portrayal of the Chinese is just pantomimic (and a parody of Charlie Chan movies et al). Peter Ustinov was British, but not English: he was Russian, French and Ethiopian. (Peter Lorre, who played a Japanese detective, was Hungarian-Jewish. Other orientals have been played by Nils Asther (Swedish) and Warner Oland (Swedish).) Peter Ustinov is brilliant in this movie.

What enormous fun! Nannies, toffs with monocles, drunken Scots, loud Yanks, inscrutable Chinese ... every cliché under the sun chases around London in pursuit of a dinosaur skeleton on the back of a lorry.Such energy, fun, and real "oomph" make this film utterly lovable. it's not subtle, but it's not meant to be. It's a kids' film. I love it as I love the Carry Ons: rip-roaring laughter, unsubtlety, old gags, and corking performances from a range of brilliant character actors.Look at the cast list! How can anyone not love this film, just from the cast list alone?! Peter Ustinov and Helen Hayes lead the proceedings. Derek Nimmo has a key role. Carry On-ers Joan Sims, Bernard Bresslaw, Amanda Barrie and the supreme Joan Hickson give 100% to their roles.People seem to be a bit sniffy about this film, but it's so good-natured, warm and funny that it's really rather rude to pick it to pieces for its stereotyping or its clichés. This film is glorious as it is.

This is possibly the best film ever. The story of a group of British nannies and a captured spy and their conflicts with the Chinese secret service over the recipe for the mysterious "lotus x" produces a miraculously silly slapstick festival of idiocy that is probably the most watchable film ever to come from Britain. Forget the grossly overrrated "The Full Monty" - One Of Our Dinosaurs is Missing is the funniest film ever to escape our sceptered isle. Of course the British actors playing Chinese characters are unconvincing, but this isn't about realism or diplomacy; it's about non-stop tomfoolery, which it supplies in bucketloads. This is what British films should be about! Not dark, brooding council estates; tower-blocks filled with the destitute; or the collapse of industry; instead, the power of self-belief and good honest values overcoming adversity. An absolute film classic, sadly overlooked at the Oscars, this deserves a cinema re-release at some point. Failing that, buy the video - you won't regret it!

English slapstick comedy spy caper definitely a must for fans of that genre. Director Robert Stevenson (Mary Poppins, The Love Bug) dresses up the scenery with nice old British cars, trucks and storefronts (watch for one called THE RELUCTANT DRAGON a tip of the hat to an old Disney animated classic) and his usual trademark special effects which includes a neat little stunt where a group of men stand on each other's shoulders to see above a fog filled street. Fans of Agatha Christie movies will note Peter Ustinov (who played Hercule Poirot) and Helen Hayes and Joan Hickson (who both played Miss Marple). A final note regarding some ill-placed, ill-thought out comments about Peter Ustinov's performance that was meant to be broad comedy. Ustinov (an Englishman) also portrayed a Belgium (Hercule Poirot), a Russian, and a Frenchman in other films without any comments about their appropriateness. From Peter Sellers who played a wickedly unflattering portrayal of a Frenchman in the Pink Panther series to Ben Kingsley's stately performance as Ghandai to Jews playing Christians (sometimes unflattering) what the heck...it's called acting. If you don't like the performance that's one thing, but to call it racist then all these performances should be called racist and ALL performances that require an actor to play someone not himself would be on some level bigoted. Don't you think? To those who would call Ustinov's performance racist you are wrong and you should sue your parents and teachers for raising an idiot. By the way. I am Chinese. If I do a good Texan accent no one would think me a racist. If I do a bad Texan accent all it means is that I do a bad Texan accent. Yee Haw!